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Extropic Crusader (BLM)

@extropiccrusade.bsky.social
373 followers 170 following 3.2K posts

She/they; SRE on hiatus: burnout sucks; writerish, doodles, plays with power tools and hot iron, bakes, crochets, gardens, learning pottery, reads copiously, and drinks a LOT of tea. #UglyDogs FTW Let's melt some ice.

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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Had to go to the dentist today: older filling failed and needed replacing. I'm at that awful time when the Novocaine is just barely hanging on, but has also migrated all over half my face. I have pins and needles everywhere. My dentist and I agreed we should all become sharks. (She has hobbies too.)
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I'm just gonna boost Kiya here, because I am lucky in that my flight/fight/freeze reaction has historically been "I will chew off any pieces of you that touch me, so help me God" and there are too many people who don't react like that. Intentions matter - but actions matter too, if not more.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
A friend of my mom's used to joke, "'Family' from the Latin, 'familia,' meaning 'trouble.'" Today, I think it faux-translates to 'exhaustion'.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Back to the gym for the first time since summer, because summer was not great, schedule-wise. There are a number of muscle groups that would Like A Word. And one single muscle in my right shoulder that wants some lidocaine and acupuncture. Need to talk to my friendly acupuncturist about when's good.
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Porter Square Books in Cambridge & Boston @portersqbooks.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Ok, well, Wickhills by @premeemohamed.com is one of the best fantasy novels I've read in quite awhile so I'm going to go with that...probably for whoever is looking for fantasy at the moment.
portersquarebooks.com
Wickhills
In the dangerous magical city of Wickhills, a streetwise secret agent is tasked with protecting a foreign defector from his pursuers... even at the threat of war.Looking after a defecting scientist should have been Vycol Ferec's easiest mission. But now he's on the run from the intelligence agency he works for, dodging a handler who might have gone rogue and relying on a secret patchwork of illicit resources and dodgy contacts. Turns out his defector might be carrying an apocalypse-level magical weapon — and protecting it requires Ferec and his team to go underground, literally. Down here, the rules are very different... and the tense peace between every city in the world will shatter unless Ferec can drag their darkest secrets into the light.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Ok, if dishwasher was first electronic entropy, and the charger cable burning was the second, and my kid's school Chromebook was the third, that sounds like three. Why do we suddenly have a bricked e-reader? :grumble:
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"pok!"
Four jars of apple scrap jelly that have come out of the boiling water canner and made the fabulous noise. (Sealed jars go "pok!" as the air inside cools and sucks the lid down.)
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Yelp: We're sorry, we can't merge your created-by-mistake account with your old account. Delete the mistaken account and add the email address to your old account. Also Yelp: We're sorry, that email address (that was on your mistaken account) is invalid. Use Gmail or Outlook. Me: How about NO. 😡
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
While I am very glad to have found the source of this morning's "Huh, that's weird, something smells like it's burning," I would have preferred to have not burned *myself* in the process. Entropy is alive and unwell in my house, thanks.
The end of a USB-C cable, plugged into an adapter, which is held on by a bright pink cable holder.  The USB-C connector housing is completely melted, exposing the bare metal of the plug, and there is visible corrosion and damage.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I trimmed the big bowl today. It did not crack while drying, and while the bottom of the bowl may be a little thinner than I would prefer, it's not dangerously so. 10 inches in diameter, just under 5 inches tall, so if the shrinkage doesn't get worse, it should be about 8.75 by 4.5 when finished.
The top view of a medium mixing bowl made of leather-hard clay. A green ruler rests on top and casts weird shadows from the pottery studio lights.The side view of a medium mixing bowl made of leather hard clay. A green ruler is held up next to it to gauge height.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
PSA: North of the Tropic of Cancer? Got S.A.D.? Today is the day to get out your light box. (Grumble grumble grumble.) (I love Autumn. It's my favorite season. But my brain slowly turns into a decomposing mushroom starting now and I don't love that one bit.)
A seasonal affective disorder lightbox (turned on) next to a coffee cup and a scone on a white plate.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
@tkingfisher.com A friend missed your AMA and desperately needs to know (for Halloween costuming correctness) what color is the stole for the Bishops of the White Rat? Obviously, it has embroidered rats. But is there a set color?
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
:incoherent LOUD ecstatic gargling noises: I can put my screwdriver away, wash the brownie pan and use it for brownies instead of draining blocked hoses, and I don't have to sit next to the dishwasher for five minutes when I start it to see if it's going to die this time! Life is good.
A shiny new dishwasher that is not broken or partially malfunctioning or dripping.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I have finally, finally made a big enough mug. It is bigger than my current mug of choice. 😁 I also made a mixing bowl today, out of about 6 pounds of clay. Is it the best mixing bowl I will ever make? No. Is it the best mixing bowl I've made so far? Hell yes, I am very proud; centering was HARD.
A mixing bowl of currently-wet clay. It is 9.5" inches in diameter, and will shrink to about 8.25" inches.A mixing bowl of currently-wet clay. It is 5" inches tall, and will shrink to about 4.5" tall.A big enough mug, in speckled buff clay, with deliberately drippy blue glaze all over it. (Except where it's not and you can see the clay.) It holds somewhere around 28-30 ounces comfortably, which is actually a little TOO big, but this clay shrinks less than the one I was throwing before, and it messed up my calculations.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Success! Even if I did have to boil it for 7 times longer than the recipe called for because the peaches were VERY juicy this year. Next year I will start with a lot less water and add it as needed.
Peach butter in a large pot finally starting to cook down to reasonable consistency.Six pints of peach butter in a boiling water bath to can for shelf stable storage.Six pints of peach butter in jars on the counter. It's a lovely dark red amber color.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I wish someone had taught me the "blanch the peaches for 60 seconds and then give them an ice bath to peel easily" trick years ago, but I'm happy I learned it now! Peach butter coming right up. Then a trip to the hardware store for more jars!
A blue bowl of peaches (mostly yellow, two white) that have all had their skins peeled perfectly off in ten minutes with a minimum of fuss.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I wish someone had taught me the "blanch the peaches for 60 seconds and then give them an ice bath to peel easily" trick years ago, but I'm happy I learned it now! Peach butter coming right up. Then a trip to the hardware store for more jars!
A blue bowl of peaches (mostly yellow, two white) that have all had their skins peeled perfectly off in ten minutes with a minimum of fuss.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
New dishwasher Friday and I cannot WAIT.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I made apple scrap jelly this evening, from the leftover bits of apples I cut up for apple butter. Taste is fine. Whether it will actually *set* is up in the air; it continued to boil inside its jars for a good 5 to 10 minutes after I pulled it out of the canning bath. Oh well, syrup is fine too.
Two pint mason jars of apple scrap jelly, with bubbles rising up inside the jars. They are not being subjected to heat anymore, but try telling them that!
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Yesterday was apple picking. We lucked out on the weather by a huge margin. Today, it's bucketing down rain. Oh darn, I'll just have to stay inside and turn all these apples into delicious things, shucks. 😁
A HUGE swath of apples on a tree renders the center red and russet, on a field of green. The sky is a brilliant, cloudless blue in the background.A kitchen counter covered in apple processing apparatuses, and apples. Unpeeled apples, a peeler, peeled apples, a slicer/corer, a pot of scraps, a larger pot of apples. (And a half peck of peaches I need to do something about before the fruit flies get them.)A quart of Autumn Crisp apple butter, in a labeled jar. (Not pictured, the other 6 pints which are hot-water canned and destined for the basement.)
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Ok, we're done. I can continue to revive this sucker for now, but before the day is out, we WILL have ordered a replacement, because I'm tired of performing technological necromancy. I want a new dishwasher.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
My most poignant 9/11 memory is from after. The LISA conference always filled its speaking track more than 6 months before it actually ran, but the November 2001 concom got hold of the senior systems administrator for CNN, to talk about what it was like, running a major news website that day. 1/
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I have revived the dishwasher again. I do not know how the cherry pits got into the drain hose, but they sure got good and stuck in there. I'm tired of this game of "Fix the Dishwasher", I would like to stop playing it.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I want to go live in a house in the woods with no road, just a trail. Guess it's time to get out the light box.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
New mug. Probably won't keep this one, but when you make a new mug and there's a coffee shop right next door, there's an obvious thing to do with the mug.
Approximately 12 ounce mug on the table at a coffee shop. It's full of decaf coffee, though you can't tell.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
And now my morning is more delightful, so here, let me share. 🐉
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Publishing and AI combine forces to screw the authors, in a brand new way. Great.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
If this gets approved in Europe and not in the US, I'm going to be SO mad. www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/new-gel... "The new material can also be applied on top of exposed dentine, growing an enamel-like layer on top of dentine, which has many benefits including treating hypersensitivity" #GoodNews
nottingham.ac.uk
News - New gel restores dental enamel and could revolutionise tooth repair - University of Nottingham
A new material has been used to create a gel that can repair and regenerate tooth enamel, opening up new possibilities for effective and long-lasting preventive and restorative dental treatment.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Got back to the studio after 3 weeks away to find I had 8 pieces bisqued and waiting. One of them was from early June. There were also several glazed pieces waiting. One had been waiting 3 weeks before I left - and it got fired the day before I got back. (It was Tall.)
A bowl about 7 inches across, a tall green mug, a slightly less tall blue mug, a tall blue glass that is EXACTLY the right size for a milkshake - and a ridiculously tall white glass that is probably going to have to be a vase because it's not really comfortable to hold. Though maybe I'll put it on my desk for water when I'm doing a long working stretch and it's hot out.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Done in. Biked to and from the local computer store today because a kid's laptop was completely busted. I'd paid for protection-from-kid, so we got a discount in the amount of the old machine for a new one. We've spent most of the afternoon setting it up - which mostly is uninstalling bloatware. 1/2
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I would dearly love to stop waking up at 5:45am.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Dead dishwasher. Yaaaaaaay. :goes looking for her appliance-necromancy kit:
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Suitcase: the Unpacking is one of those games I don't like to play at all. However, finding the tiny wool-encased sheep magnet we bought was a nice giggle during this round. (I need to remember to pack a magnet for holding things on the fridge, my family automatically looks there to see the menu.)
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Why do so many awesome friends and found-family members have to live so far away, while the annoying ones live (relatively, thankfully, several states away) nearby?
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
I might need to tattoo this on the outside of my eyelids, so that when I blink at people who think that I could just...not make stuff, they might get a clue.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
What, I know it's August, but that means I've only got two months before my ears want warm fuzziness! #crochet
Human legs in dark teal sweatpants with grey yarn and a crochet hook on top of them. The very beginnings of a crochet something have been started with the yarn.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Mad cackling over this one!
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
I have spent the day cleaning, which means that I have moved things around a lot. Some things have been thrown out, but not as much as I would like? However, I am WIPED OUT. And there will be more of this tomorrow. Oof. But. It will be so good when it's done, and the floor will stop being lava. 😅
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
I have been meaning to frame and hang my friend's art for MONTHS, but I kept getting distracted and misplacing the art. But I'm prepping the house for the annual fall Dust Bunny and susuwatari eviction, and I found it again and went, "Ok, I'm getting this up TODAY " And I did and it's gorgeous.
A framed pair of pictures on orange matting. The bottom is abstract squares full of bubbles and lines, each square in a single colorwat; the top is similar, but some of the squares are not abstract and have leaves, flowers, or stones doodled inside them.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Very pleased with how today's trimming turned out. I'm not going to get much time to play with clay for the next few weeks, so it's nice to start the (enforced by circumstance) pause on a high note. #pottery
Pottery waiting to be bisque fired: one large drinking cup, about 7 inches tall, and three inverted bowls, each about 6 inches across.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
My older kid is working on setting up an attachment to their 3D printer, and the feed tube got jammed in the wrong place. After some Internet research, they knew what to do, but it required pressing down evenly on a donut-shaped connector the tube was coming out of. Drinking straws for the win. 😆
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
I could have done without my neighbor taking out her rage (at a different neighbor) on me this morning. However, I was constructive: I took my rage out on the black swallow wort. Then I went and threw three bowls that are almost the same size, and trimmed my mugs. #garden #pottery
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Apparently, I am an acceptable human. (I do not speak fluent cat, but I know what biscuits and purring and scent marking and love nibbles mean - even when I'd rather not have the last.) Ok, I'm not going to argue when the queen makes her desires known. It's her house, I'm just visiting.
A black cat with yellow eyes and a few white whiskers, perched on the lap of the human photographing her. She is very sleek.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I am reading a book where the world building is excellent, the premise exciting, and the protagonist...is a 17 year old girl who has willfully (?) ignored the ingrained classism of her society for her whole life. And for a YA novel, this is FINE, but I want to read this story as an adult. Drat.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Every so often, when I level up a skill, I discover (again) that I'm not yet a god. Flopped three mugs today in pottery before BARELY managing a fourth. I think I must have done a bad job wedging, and since I'm trying new things, it bit me. But the hedgehog travel mug came out great. #pottery
A handle-less brown and gold mug with a hedgehog engraved on the side. The glaze has been thinned to make it more obvious.The top of a brown and gold clay travel mug. Something (a hedgehog) is carved into the side of the mug, but it's unclear what from this angle.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I keep running into _Swordheart_ (T. Kingfisher) in bookstores, and getting excited before I remember that it's just got a new cover, and I still have to wait another couple of months for _Daggerbound_. (Also, my covers aren't going to match. But you will pry my first edition out of my dead hands.)
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Eff cancer. I have lost too many friends to it. I'm donating in memory of my Granddad (who I lost so young that I cannot really remember him), my Grandma, my friend Ms. Memory, and a bunch of other folks I know who've gotten bit by it - whether it killed them or not. Donating.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
A few summers ago, some family members gave me a spotted bee balm plant that I put in the front garden, where it promptly died. Nothing from it the following 2 years, nary a sprout. Today, abruptly: HI! I'm delighted. 😃 Time to weed around this new native friend and encourage it a LOT. #garden
Many differently-sized white flowers that look rather like eight or sixteen pointed fireworks exploding out in star shapes from central green stamens. Below, the leaves echo the flowers in their radial patterns, although they are much less showy.

There is also a garden hose that has snuck into the picture.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
A fun thing about doing pottery with my spousecreature (💙) is that every so often I get to squee about THEIR work. For example, I love this coffee cup. #pottery
A hand thrown coffee cup with blue glaze applied around the rim and base, but with a deliberately-exposed equator of unglazed clay. The blue has dribbled in delightful patterns.
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Extropic Crusader (BLM) @extropiccrusade.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
I spent last week helping my mom out with a bunch of stuff that she's too disabled to do right now. (Getting an air conditioner into the window is hard after knee replacement surgery, y'know?) I was DELIGHTED to do it because Mom does not like to ask for help, so it's a gift whenever she does. But.
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